Manufactured Housing : Policy

In today’s high priced real estate market, manufactured housing has become the housing choice for many families. Some 8.8 million American families live in mobile homes,  and many dealers target the low-income market. Manufactured homes dot the landscape inside urban areas as well as in the countryside. 

Public and nonprofit housing programs over the past two decades have emphasized that a first house is a major asset and home buying helps families build wealth over the long term.  Our research indicates that significant problems, ranging from predatory lending, unstable tenancy, and installation and warranty problems all too often strip equity from the families who purchase manufactured homes.  These problems must be addressed before manufactured housing can be counted on to consistently provide safe, durable, and asset-building housing to the public.

The resources below explore in detail the problems that plague this industry and provide suggestions to both consumers and policymakers.  We discuss how community development organizations can extract the technological advantages of factory built housing while avoiding industry practices that ruin its promise.  Most importantly, we make recommendations for reforms that policy makers can implement to better manufactured housing for everyone.

• Raising the Floor, Raising the Roof: Raising Our Expectations for Manufactured Housing (HTML PDF)  START HERE! If you are going to read just one of our reports, this should be it. Our summary of issues in manufactured housing, with policy and program recommendations for practitioners.
  
• Manufactured Housing Appreciation: Stereotypes and Data (PDF)  The stereotype that manufactured homes always depreciate is pervasive.  This technical report examines the data and literature to come to a better understanding of how manufactured housing changes value over time.
  
• Market Failures Evident in Manufactured Housing  The big picture view of what is wrong with the manufactured housing industry.
  
• Paper Tiger Missing Dragon: Poor Service and Worse Enforcement Leave Manufactured Homeowners in the Lurch  This case study of a state (TX) regulatory agency also examines common warranty complaints from homeowners.
  
• CU Comments On New Mexico Deposit Regulations  Our recommendations for model state regulation of downpayments and deposits.
  
• In Over Our Heads: Predatory Lending and Fraud in Manufactured Housing  The lending industry for manufactured homes has undergone dramatic pains in the last decade.  This popular report outlines how systematic lending and sales problems destroy equity for consumers.
  
• Manufactured Homeowners Who Rent Lots Lack Security of Basic Tenants Rights  Owning a home on rented land is a risky proposal.  This report focus on Texas to examine the stories and problems facing owners of manufactured homes who rent the land under their home.
  
• Consumers Union Policy Resources for Contracts and Arbitration  Binding arbitration clauses are pervasive in manufactured home sales and loan contracts. 
  
 

• Affordable Housing: Best Practices & Appreciation/Depreciation Studies
• Community Conversion
• Landlord Tenant Law
• Consumer Protection
• General Research Studies and Organizations
• Standards, Monitoring and Regulatory Organizations